“cr azy white men” 239character frequently displayed in hip-hop videos, in which male rappers
are surrounded by such quintessential icons of wealth and male fantasy
as fast cars, luxury mansions, and loose women. (The promotional poster
for W hite Nigerian’s Dirty Wine can be seen in figure 8.2.)
There are also many symbolic references in terms of national
belonging—in the case of W hite Nigerian and EES, who are citizens of
Nigeria and Namibia, respectively—and of Pan-Africanism—in the case
of Mzungu Kichaa, in whose music videos red, gold, and green, the quint-
essential colors of Africa and its diaspora, appear quite frequently. In his
earlier videos, W hite Nigerian can be seen wearing a black jacket that
resembles a Nigerian police officer’s uniform with a national flag stitched
on the lapel. The national colors, green and white, are also often referenced
in the visual material that makes up his public image. His Facebook page
contains several pictures that show him serving his country as a youth
“corper,” the coinage of which comes from Nigeria’s mandatory National
Youth Service Corps program. In an essay written for a society magazine,
he describes his national belonging as follows: “They say ‘never judge a
book by its cover’ and that’s exactly right. A lot of people see me and as-
sume I am an ‘Oyibo’ [‘European’]. I’m not and let my color not deceive
you. It’s what’s inside that counts and for me apart from the color, I am Ni-
gerian to the core. Born and bred in Jos, I grew up speaking Hausa and of
cou rse Pidg i n Eng l ish. I have one pa sspor t a nd it ’s g reen” (W h ite Niger ia n
2013). EES, also known as “Nam-boy,” is no less outspoken in claiming his
national identity. Namibia’s flag appears quite often in his music videos
and stage performances; likewise, a certain type of hand sign—made by
bending fingers in such a way as to represent the contours of Namibia on
the map. W hen asked by Channel O (2013) about the reason for these
patriotic references, EES replied:
So when you’re outside A frica that’s when one realizes what he or she is
truly missing and then I’m like, “Damn, Namibia that’s my home. Okay let
me put a Nam flag here” just to represent [Namibia] and then [the] next
video, “Oh let me put a Nam flag here as well,” and it just developed into a
habit.... I couldn’t just represent any one tribe since we are one Namibia;
we are very diverse, like 13 to 15 different cultures so let me represent
them all. Then my hand sign, because it looks like Namibia on the map.
A lso the other reason is that I looked at the other countries music-wise
and I analyzed why they are successful, especially on the hip-hop scene,